The Senate has removed power sector from an exclusive legislative list amid F.G’s plan to deliver 4,000MW of electricity through nuclear power
The members of the upper legislative chamber passed a bill for an Act to alter the provisions of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to allow states to generate, transmit and distribute electricity in area covered by the National Grid and for related matters.
The bill was passed during plenary on Tuesday with 90 senators voting in favour of the bill and no dissenting voice during its consideration.
The Federal Government of Nigeria had on Tuesday said it is trying to deliver 4,000MW of electricity through nuclear power.
Director-General, Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA), Dr Yau Idris made this known at the ongoing Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja.
Disclosing how the 4,000MW would be generated, Idris said Nigeria has opened bids for the construction of nuclear power plants that would generate the 4,000 megawatts of the electricity.
He said Nigeria had been trying to diversify its energy sources since 1977, stressing that the additional 4,000MW would increase the country’s generation capacity to about 13,000MW.
“Nigeria is trying to deliver 4,000MW of electricity through nuclear power. We are trying to construct four units and we are at the bidding stage,” he said.
The DG disclosed that the NNRA has signed agreements with Russia, Pakistan, France and South Korea to build the capacity of its staff in manning the nuclear plants.
Also, executive director, Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) Ltd, Ifeoluwa Oyedele blamed lack of synergy across the power sector value chain for the dismal performance of the industry.
Oyedele said the power generation companies could only release about 5,000MW into the national grid due to lack of infrastructure for transmission and distribution to end users.
Oyedele, who said there was an urgent need to provide access to electricity for more Nigerians in order to accelerate economic growth, disclosed that the company was looking at supplying power directly to end users through signing off power purchase agreements with industrial clusters across the country.